"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!" --AnonymousA living legend turned 100 in May. He's W. Clement Stone, founder of Combined Insurance Company (which is now a part of Aon Corp.) and author of one of
best-selling motivational books of all time, Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude. The book is based on concept that what mind can conceive and believe - mind can achieve.
I first learned of W. Clement Stone in 1977, when I attended Interlochen Arts Academy for my senior year of high school. Mr. Stone had given money to school to fund some scholarships, and I was one of recipients of his generosity. After I graduated from high school, I decided to write and thank Mr. Stone for enabling me to attend this prestigious academy my last year of high school. I was quite surprised to receive a lengthy handwritten response from him, in which he thanked me for taking time to write and encouraged me to follow my dreams.
Several years later I encountered Mr. Stone's name again in a book that told about how he used positive mental attitude to achieve his goals.
W. Clement Stone was a self-made man. His father died before he was 3 years old, and he was selling newspapers on street corners at age of 6. By time he was 13 years old he had his own newsstand. He read Horatio Alger novels, picturing himself as youngsters who overcame adversity.
Stone's mother worked for an insurance company, and he started selling insurance at age of 16. He dropped out of school to work full time, finishing high school in night classes. During Depression, when others believed that insurance would be impossible to sell, Stone saw tremendous untapped possibilities. Soon he signed up salespeople to work for him, eventually building his own company. By 1979, Stone's insurance company exceeded $1 billion in assets. He later took his business principles and packaged them into a second career, promoting success through a positive mental attitude.
Although W. Clement Stone has not been a central figure in my life, his philosophy clearly permeates my thoughts. I recently heard a story that paralleled Stone's own success story. As story goes, two shoe salesmen were sent to Africa. The first reported a problem -- all of natives went barefoot -- and thus he believed that there was no market in Africa for shoes. The second salesman reported an opportunity -- all of natives went barefoot -- and thus he believed that Africa held a tremendous untapped market for shoes.
Problems vs. Opportunities "Restlessness and discontent are first necessities of progress." --Thomas Edison
We live in an interesting time with corporate downsizing, restructuring, and increase in global competition. Some view these times as problematic; others see incredible opportunities created by such change.
In last decade there has been a huge growth in home-based and service-industry businesses. These businesses have been started by individuals with courage to pursue their dreams while fulfilling unmet needs they've identified. Yet, for every idea that is implemented, thousands of ideas never get beyond conceptual stage...from imagination to a plan of action.
What holds people back from pursuing their dreams and acting on their great ideas? I believe it's fear of failure. Someone once said "there are a lot of ways to become a failure, but never taking a chance is most successful way." I've also heard it said that "people don't plan to fail...they fail to plan."
Companies these days must be willing and able to change constantly. Sometimes companies change course to survive, and sometimes they do so because an opportunity is too good to resist. I know of a small company that provided a messenger service several years ago. A sudden major increase in corporate use of fax machines nearly put this small company out of business. Fortunately, owner of company was astute enough to realize other global corporate trends happening at same time. As those companies were acquiring fax machines, square footage of office space was decreasing, generating a need for more offsite storage space. The owner shifted gears from offering a messenger service to providing an offsite records storage service, and soon business was booming once again.
